Air India registers better performance in October

Air India has benefited the most from the temporary closure of Kingfisher Airlines, increasing its market share by 1.5 percentage points in October over September. The national carrier now has a market share of 20.8 per cent, behind Jet Airways' 24.7 per cent and IndiGo's 27.8 per cent, according to DGCA's latest data.

Air India also carried 51,000 more passengers in October this year compared to 898,000 passengers carried in October last year, despite the total passenger flown in October this year falling by 15.7 per cent.

During October, Jet Airways' market grew by 0.9 percentage points and IndiGo and SpiceJet grew at 0.6 percentage points each.

The total passenger carriage in October continued to register a decline for the fourth consecutive month and fell by 15.7 per cent during the month. Around 4.5 million passengers flew in October compared to 5.4 million passengers, who flew in October last year.

Industry analysts, however, feel that the numbers will be better in November. "In 2011, all the festivals were celebrated in October, whereas, this year Diwali shifted to November and we expect a better passenger carriage in November this year," said a senior airline official.

Meanwhile, a government release said, "civil aviation minister Ajit Singh has asked Air India to further improve its passenger load factor and on-time performance while aggressively implementing its various customer friendly initiatives."

The passenger load factor of the national carrier has improved to 74.7 per cent in October 2012 compared to 64.7 per cent in July 2012.

The airline has been consistently gaining its market share since June this year from 16.8 per cent to 20.8 per cent in October.

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